What Makes You Trust the Doctor?

Aug 22, 2012

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The main thing for a doctor is professionalism. However, professionalism is not enough for the patient to trust a specialist.

According to the findings of the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (Australia), patients are very sensitive to appearance. The scientists from this university decided to find out how patients developed trust to their doctors. They spent six months observing doctors at work. Some doctors were armed with a stethoscope, while others were provided with a hammer to test reflexes. The patients were asked to rate the doctors according to their appearance, answering the question whom they liked more at first sight and whom they would prefer to be treated by.

Stethoscope was a real magical artifact: it immediately raised the confidence index by 95%. It is a seemingly plain medical device, but in the eyes of patients it immediately grants the doctor with a number of positive qualities. A doctor with a stethoscope was spoken about as a reliable and honest specialist that possessed moral and ethical principles. Thus it is still very hard to overestimate the person’s image.